Due to the nature of armored garments, commonly known as bullet proof vests, it is very desirable to be able to positively ascertain the protective capabilities of such garments prior to use. Typically, an armored garment manufacturer will test a representative sample from a large lot or inventory to obtain a statistical level of confidence with respect to the integrity of untested garments. A test may involve firing a projectile, such as a bullet, into an armored garment. This results in the sacrifice of an expensive garment and produces results which are merely indicative of the probable efficacy of units from that lot. Once an armored garment has been tested, the area of the test can no longer afford proper protection due to the damages sustained. The tested garment is typically subjected to analysis by the manufacturer to understand how the particular garment behaved. The tested garments, however, are not distributed to purchasers or users.
Variations in the manufacturing process, or variations in the nature of the material may result in some garments capable of affording satisfactory protection, and some garments which fail to provide adequate protection. A purchaser or a user who depends upon the armored garment in potentially life threatening situations has no assurance that the garment which he has purchased or wears will provide satisfactory protection. Even if the aforedescribed tests were carried out in the presence of, or under the supervision of the purchasers or users under standardized testing conditions, there is still no reasonable certainty that non-tested garments would provide adequate protection to an ultimate user.
A typical armored garment is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,464. The garment includes front and back panels secured around the torso of a wearer by VELCRO closures. The front and back panels each have an outer cover of synthetic cloth material selectively sewn together to form a plurality of pockets. KEVLAR pads and ballistic shields of KEVLAR and nylon are rigidized with a thermosetting resin and are selectively disposed within pockets in the front and back panels to afford a wearer protection against ballistic impact.
None of the garments known in the art include means for providing one hundred percent testing of the armored garments. Consequently, there is no reasonable certainty that armored garments in use today will provide proper protection against ballistic impact in the event of an attack, until such time as an attack has occurred. Naturally, waiting for an attack in order to be assured that an armored garment will perform under a given set of circumstances is most undesirable. Therefore, a test which will provide a reliable indication of the protective capabilities of an individual garment is greatly needed.